Saturday, November 08, 2008

The Yellow Brick Road

“"Buddhism compromises the truth of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ who said He alone was the way the truth and the life."

Upon this I asked a simple question:

“What is it that makes up the “He” in that statement?”

I have not received a response, which isn’t surprising. The claim is simple enough; it says that “Jesus” is the “Way” the “Truth” and the “Life”. So the question again put another way is this:“What is ‘The Jesus’ and what is ‘the way the truth and the life’?”

So I came up with a nice childlike analogy that sort of fits this occasion, consider the following video; I know you know it, but give it a watch, it’s short:

So keep this in mind as you read, "Jesus is the way to the truth, Jesus is the way to the truth, Jesus-Jesus-Jesus-Jesus, Jesus is the way to the truth......"

Let’s suppose I make the following statement:"The yellow brick road is the way to the wizard’s castle.”

I think the statement is pretty clear here. You have “the road” (of yellow brick) where if followed leads to the wizard’s castle. The road in this case exists in objective reality however, and so does the wizard’s. As well, surely there are other ways to the wizard’s, and perhaps even other roads, but to get there you must take one. The problem is, as seen in the video, you’ve been told on so many occasions that the yellow one is the right one you don’t know any different.

Let’s switch gears quick and I’ll come back to the yellow road. Let’s now make the statement, “Jesus is the way to the truth.” Simple enough I think. Except in this case, where again is the Jesus and what is the truth. I actually received a response that implied the following answer: “Jesus is in the bible.” Ok, that’s a fair answer, so the “Road”, is the bible? So in effect we’re saying that “words” lead to truth, but only a certain set of words spoken and believed in a certain way? The Bible? Words by themselves are hopelessly meaningless, how is it that the bible is capable of capturing the mystery of some lost truth and no-one else can? It seems simple and strait forward enough.

Anyway, back to the yellow brick road. Let’s suppose that I begin following this road and along the way I meet someone who asks, “Where are you headed?” and I respond, “I’m off to see the wizard.”“Oh” responds the man, “Well you can just take the I90 then, it’s a strait shot all the way there, no traffic, no hangups”“No way!” I say, “The yellow brick road is the only way to the wizard.”“Suite yourself” says the man, and off he goes.Once again, before I even began my journey, the idea that the yellow brick road was the right path was so ingrained into my psyche I knew not how to say otherwise.

I continue on my way and along the path I meet several other individuals who continually tell me there are other roads to the wizard. I continually shoot them down until eventually I’m stuck with so much opposition I build a temple on the road. My innocents is lost, I am lost, and I’m rolled over with dogma. Now the conversation becomes not about the wizard, but the road itself. The road suddenly becomes the way, the truth and the life, and to all who appose me as they’re passing by on adjacent roads I say, “You are all so lost, the truth is here, it’s the yellow brick road.” And they continue on. Although I’m not alone, I’ve managed to convince those without brains, the heartless and those without courage that I’ve found the truth. Together we wage war against the other paths, we try to destroy them…..

I find that many dogmatic Christians live this way. They live somewhere on the road between life and death proclaiming that they are standing on the truth, that they hold it in they’re hand. It’s JESUS! It’s the Bible! Yet they do not follow, they squat; rather then follow a righteous rout to salvation, they seek to justify the road they live on by casting rebukes onto others chosen paths. They’re truth is no longer in the destination they seek; it exists in the justification that they have the right road to begin with. They have (as is said) mistaken the finger for the moon. They have mistaken the road for the truth, the road for the way and they no longer see where it is they go because they are no longer traveling anywhere. They are holding the bible as they’re own personal piece of idolatry and dogma, so they build a temple on it, and a house…

The bible is just words. What it means to seek and to follow Christ does not exist in a finite amount of black type written upon hundreds of gold leaf pages sitting on your coffee table, and it does not exist in a man who is now long since dead. In the same way the path to the wizard is not etched in yellow bricks built upon dirt and clay. To some degree, the path exists in your willingness to accept the journey and your ability to see the end. In other words, the truth doesn’t exist in Christ any more then the wizard exists in the road; the journey, as with truth, begins and ends with you.

What is missing then is simple. Had one traveled the road all the way to the wizard’s, and upon arriving climbed to the top of the clock tower and looked out, suddenly all errors would be recognized. One would see that one was wrong all along. Having faithfully traveled the journey, one now see’s that many paths lead to the wizard, some long, some short. Now, as with Christ, one accepts everyone.

Words, like roads, simply open one’s eyes to the realization that perhaps you should start traveling……